Page 33 of Hazard

Then Kodiak muscled his way between them, immediately going into medic mode. But even as his teammate tended to her, she remained latched onto Hazard’s gaze, reaching out to him.

He took her delicate hand into his as her eyes pleaded for him not to let go.

He wasn’t able to deny crossing the line with her in any sense of the imagination. Now more than ever, he wanted to be that man she saw, the man who had rescued her, the man she needed.

10

Hazard’s hands shook as he put together the MRE for Leigh. His lungs felt tight, his breathing choppy. Blood pounded in his temples, and his heart was heavy. He felt completely drained and totally wasted. But he was desperate to see her.

They had retreated to one of the buildings, half his buddies resting and eating, and the other half maintaining their perimeter. He looked down at the food: Beef stew, his favorite, along with an oatmeal cookie, another fav, and his last one. He shook his head, and he gave himself a little swift kick. He hadn’t been likely to share this delicious part of his kit with anyone.

He had to temper this feverish heat and undeniable hunger Leigh caused whenever she was near him. But she’d been through more hell than a lawyer should be, and definitely more than a woman deserved. Frustration with the entire situation, along with his unwanted attraction to her, made everything all the more complicated. He admired her tenacity to go after what she wanted and found her argumentative personality a turn-on. Damn her.

He went into the building that had a crude barracks and bunks, one of which Leigh was sitting on, Anna next to her.

When the door opened, Leigh reacted immediately, pressing back like she was being threatened. That feeling came over him again and his observant brain often wondered about the intensity that generated this type of feeling in others.

Rage.

He was beginning to think he was way in over his head when it came to her, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about that realization.

So, he clenched his jaw, his anger suppressed only by his helplessness. Christ, she looked so scared and vulnerable, and he wasn’t used to seeing her that way. He’d been responsible for her safety, and he’d failed to keep her out of harm’s way, and that was something that ate at him like acid. Another jolt of guilt punched him hard in the gut, but he didn’t want to dwell on her attack. That fucker was just outside, trussed up like the pig he was. He clenched his hand around the fork he was carrying.

There were so many ways to kill a man…Hazard pushed those dark thoughts away. He wouldn’t cross that line. Leigh had asked him not to, but he couldn’t reconcile the feeling that if she asked him, he would turn into a cold-blooded killer for her.

Feeling the weight of uncertainty in his meager offer of food for someone who had been through her kind of ordeal was at best naive, at worst stupid. He hated feeling ineffectual, useless, at a heartbreaking loss. This whole thing with Leigh was out of his wheelhouse, especially all these negative emotions that had never affected him before. He didn’t know how to handle them, and he was sure reconstituted beef stew and an oatmeal cookie weren’t going to make her feel better in any way.

But it couldn’t hurt. He was certain of that. She had to be hungry. He looked at Anna, who had a bleak expression in her eyes, shaking her head slightly. She was telling him that Leigh was still on the verge of collapse. He gave her a little nudge, as a way to get some alone time with Leigh and hopefully make a difference.

Anna turned to her, took her hands, and in a soothing voice, said, “Hey, I see that your dinner has arrived, and I think I’ll go hit one of the guys up for a hot meal. You going to be okay?”

“Of course, I’ll be okay. I’m fine, Anna. I’m worried about the guys. They better watch your right cross.”

Anna chuckled, shaking her head at Hazard’s confusion.

Hazard was aware that Leigh wasn’t fine at all. Her face and arms attested to the brutality of her kidnappers.

She was bruised and battered, but she looked beautiful to him, and he wanted to touch her, caress her soft, warm cheek with the back of his knuckles and smooth her disheveled hair away from her face. That bit of tenderness weaving through his system startled him. He never had these kinds of thoughts.

Her wounds and bruises would heal, but Leigh would have to deal with the mental pain that came with what had happened to her. People wanted to put tragedy and trauma behind them, but most military men knew that was just putting off the inevitable crash. It would come, now or later. It would be better if she talked about it now that it was fresh.

But he also knew that some people just weren’t ready to talk about it until they got some distance, and…sometimes they refused to talk about it at all.

Anna passed him and squeezed his forearm, giving him a sweet look after seeing that he had a cookie on her plate.

He ducked his head and sighed. He wasn’t at all sweet, not by a long shot. He’d been a hairsbreadth away from killing a man in cold blood.

“Are you going to bring that food over here or just hold it and tease me, you jerk.”

His head came up and she gave him a tentative smile, and his heart rolled over. There it was, that personal smile, not one professional bit involved. It was warm, and it was for him alone.

“Oh, you thought this was for you?” he said with confusion.

She tilted her head and gave him another smile. “Commando humor. You’re sassing me with doorhitting and pipekicking humor? You are a tease,” she murmured.

He chuckled. “It’s doorkicker and pipehitter,” he said indulgently.

“Oh, my bad.” She looked sheepish, but beneath all that humor, he could see the aftermath of her terror darkening her eyes. It tore at his heart.

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